Houston Welcomes Guests for 24th Year

Houston Spring Flywheel Festival — April 26–27, 2013

The MS Valley Flywheel Association is celebrating their 32nd year and Houston is proud to have been the site of the festival for the past 24 of those years.

During 1988 and 1989, city officials and interested parties sought to encourage the festival to move to Houston from its location in Grenada.

Former Mayor Jimmy Smith said that he met with Flywheel officials to try to get the site relocated.

“I talked to them at Hugh White State Park and then went to Jackson to talk to the Flywheel Association about moving it here,” Smith said. “The Pilot Club reinstated their crafts fair for it.”

At the time, a location in town was needed and the Park seemed like an opportune spot. The city cleaned up the wooded area around the walking track and the new site was available for tractor enthusiasts and arts and crafts vendors.

The April 12, 1989 edition of the Times-Post announced that the annual Art Fair in the Park had been expanded to include other events and called the Spring Show of the Mississippi Valley Flywheel Club a highlight of the event.

Smith said that Craig Ellard, a member of the MS Valley Flywheel club was instrumental in helping move the event to Houston.

Now in its 32nd year, the Flywheel Festival continues to grow, adding more children’s activities, while keeping the old tractors and “flywheel” engines going strong.